“No,” Donall said, word clipped. That made him nervous, too, Hallie saw. “He hadn’t been seen for a few days before the gunners came.”
“So, he went missing from Reunion?” Hallie asked.
“Must have done,” Donall answered. But he wouldn’t meet her eyes. He shrugged slightly. “He wasn’t one of us, not really. Nicholas sent him. Gave him instructions on what to say, what not to say, and insisted on regular reports.” That was the truth,as Donall understood it. And it made sense, from what Hallie had seen of Nicholas.
“A spy in our midst,” Rhodda put in, bitterness in her voice.
“We knew what he was,” Donall said in a soothing voice, as if that was an argument they’d had plenty of times before.
“Any idea what happened to him?” Hallie asked.
“Well, he didn’t just vanish.” One of the other people at the tables spoke up. A thin woman, brown hair pulled back into a knot at the back of her head, face lined with weariness.
“Jonah took him,” another one of the Reunion settlers put in. The youngest one, who didn’t look quite as beaten down as the others.
There was a ripple of agreement around the room.
“Jonah? That’s the governor, isn’t it?” Hallie prompted, looking from Donall to Rhodda. “Is he here?”
“This is not his territory,” Donall told her. “He and his men are on the hill.”
“The hill?” Hallie asked.
“There’s an old building up on the cliffs not far from here,” Rhodda told her. “That’s where the governor lives.”
Hallie remembered the ancient building she’d seen from the helicopter, and was very glad that she and Girard had not tried to make their way there to wait for back-up, as they’d briefly discussed. It seemed as if they would have run into this Jonah and his men, which seemed at least as unpleasant a prospect as meeting Nicholas again.
And there was that term again. Governor. From the way Rhodda spoke, it seemed she had far more fear of Jonah, this governor, than she did of Nicholas Rigg. Having now met the self-styled principal, and found him full of violence and the sense of his own importance, Hallie found herself both curious and apprehensive about meeting Jonah. But also determined to actually meet him. It seemed that he and Nicholas were twoof the most important figures on the island, and whatever was going on would probably involve either or both of them.
Nicholas’ house was a sharp contrast to the way most people in New Hope lived and Hallie wondered if Jonah had surrounded himself with similar comfort and evidence of status. Assuming that the house on the hill was the great, grey building almost smothered by trees, it hadn’t seemed that far away. Although it had been difficult to judge distances from the air, she thought that the apparently ruined building was close enough to reach on foot and also far enough away from New Hope that Jonah and Nicholas had their own separate territories. Perhaps when she and Girard were done with exploring the settlement, they could make their way up the hill to visit Jonah. Thinking about the distance and height, Hallie also added borrowing an ATV to her wish-list. She was almost fully recovered from using her magic to hold off the warrimel, but she had a feeling she’d need all the energy she could gather to deal with Jonah. That was always assuming that she and Girard could get out of this building and New Hope without Nicholas being able to enact his plan to kill them both. Despite the very real threats hanging over them, she almost laughed at herself. She was getting ahead of herself. One problem at a time.
Before then, she had more questions for the Reunion residents.
“I’m not sure that Jonah took Waller,” Hallie told Donall and Rhodda, voice flat. Without giving them time to respond, she went on, “Girard and I found the body.”
“What body?” Donall demanded.
Rhodda flinched and shook her head. “Had nothing to do with that.”
“Liar,” Hallie said, still in that hard tone. She pulled out her phone and opened one of the photographs of the dead man’sface, showing it to Rhodda. “This is Waller, isn’t it? Dead and buried in a shallow grave.”
“It’s him,” Rhodda whispered after one glance at the screen, edging away from Hallie. The fear that had been held at bay when she’d confronted Nicholas was back, and Hallie felt her stomach turn. She’d caused an injured woman to shrink back from her and brought the terror back to her face.
Trying to push aside her own unease, she turned the phone screen so that Donall could see it as well. His face lost what little colour it had had, deep purple shadows under his eyes standing out. More guilt washed through Hallie. Not only had she frightened Rhodda again, she’d also upset Donall, who was at the end of his strength.
“What is this?” Donall asked, voice a low, harsh whisper. Hallie ignored him for a moment, keeping her focus on Rhodda.
“You knew he was dead,” Hallie went on, still in that hard voice, pushing down her guilt. She wanted answers. “What happened? Did you kill him?”
“Kill him? Me? No.” And there was a bit of truth, enough to ease some of the tension that had spread across Hallie’s shoulders.
“But you know who did.” Hallie made it a statement. She was quite sure of it.
Rhodda lifted her chin and glared at Hallie, anger and fear mixed in her face. “I don’t have to talk to you.”
“That’s right. You don’t. But even if you didn’t kill him - and I believe you when you say you didn’t - then you know something about what happened to him. The Conclave are going to want to know what happened to him.” Responding to the fear Rhodda had shown, Hallie gentled her voice a little.
“I can’t tell you.” It was a harsh whisper, and it was honest.
